History has a nasty habit of repeating itself. Fire and Movement was written during the war against communist guerrillas in Vietnam, but we can still learn much from it about fighting terrorists in the current war in Iraq. This is not another dry rehash of ideas from some self-proclaimed armchair expert. Jac Weller, a leading expert on small arms and military tactics, traveled more than 45,000 miles throughout the Far East researching this book. Each chapter gives a good understanding of the military and political aspects of a specific war - not only in Vietnam but the "bargain basement wars" in Malaysia and the Philippines as well - without getting bogged down with unnecessary details. Weller also provides his own live-fire descriptions and photographs of the military weapons and other equipment in use at the time by the various armies in the region, and he describes actual firefights to underscore his opinions. For anyone who wants to understand the basic military and political principles of combating guerrillas, this book is a must-read. The general summary is written in such a way that the words "Vietnam" and "Communist" could be replaced with "Iraq" and "Islamic" and the arguments would still make sense. Because many of his predictions about unconventional warfare have come to pass, Weller's analysis of guerrilla, or asymmetric, warfare is as relevant and accurate today as it was 40 years ago. ILLUSTRATIONS illustrated throughout
